The United States Coast Guard (USCG) ‘Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutter’ Bernard C. Webber, was commissioned recently in the Port of Miami, the first in a new class of cutters from the Louisiana-based Bollinger Shipyards. Part of the USCG’s Deepwater programme, the Webber will based in Miami to conduct migrant and contraband interdiction missions throughout the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico; the Coastguard chose a tried and tusty propulsiion system and a well-proven ship design fot these new patrol boats.Sentinel-class Propulsion System
The Sentinel Class is powered by two 20-cylinder MTU marine diesel engines with a patrol boat or light duty rating well in excess of 4,300 kW at 2,100 rpm driving twin propellors through ZF Marine 23560C transmissions. A bow thrust gives 75 kW power for manoeuvring.
ZF Marine 23560C Transmission Unit: Photo credit ZF Marine
Interestingly, ZF Marine has a long record of providing the USCG with propulsion machinery, and... [More]

Unmanned surface vessels took a step further toward becoming a reality when a U.S. Navy research and development programme attained its first objective – to build and demonstrate a vessel on the assumption that no person steps aboard at any point in its operating cycle.
The Textron Common Unmanned Surface Vessel (CUSV) vividly met this objective during the Navy’s 2011 ‘Sea Warrior’ experiment at Hampton Roads near the Norfolk Naval Base, clearing the way for subsequent Federal Government invitations to tender for work on the remaining objectives set out by the Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA) in its Anti-submarine Warfare Unmanned Vessel Continuos Trail (ACTUV) programme. A project aimed to develop an unmanned X-ship optimised to robustly track quiet diesel electric submarines.
Patrol Boat – Unmanned & Autonomous: Photo courtesy of AA! Systems
Fleet-Class Common Unmanned Surface Vessel by Textron
Not only was the unmanned patrol boa... [More]